Just a quick recap… What does the ideal bodybuilder look like? Answer: he or she has broad shoulders, a wide back, a slim waist, narrow hips, legs with a ‘sweep’, and broad calves.
We’ve covered the broad shoulders and wide back; now it’s time for the part that almost everyone wants: a slim waist!
The slim waist consists of three components: a low body fat percentage, well-trained abdominal muscles, and a tight lower back. First, the abdominal muscles.
The Abdominal Muscles
Almost everyone in the Western world is on the hunt for the ultimate sex symbol: the six-pack! Day in and day out, you’re bombarded with images of slender models and athletes with clearly visible abs. The cover of Men’s Health is a perfect example of this, whether the man on the cover is fairly muscular or not, he always has a six-pack. It’s the beauty ideal for most men and women.
Research has shown that men find a vertical navel very attractive. The only way to get a vertical navel is by reducing your body fat percentage sufficiently and training your abs.
These are also the two main components to obtaining a slim waist. Training alone won’t magically reveal your six-pack; a low body fat percentage is essential. Training your abs tightens them, makes the muscles slightly larger to enhance their appearance, and adds more definition to your waist. However, if there’s a layer of fat covering them, no amount of training will reveal a six-pack!
Anyone can get a six-pack (or four-pack or eight-pack, depending on your build); in fact, everyone has it! The muscles are there, and through your normal movement patterns, they’re usually fairly developed. All you need to do now is reduce your body fat percentage low enough (usually below 10% for men, around 15% for women) to see them and train them to bring them out more prominently.
The abdominal muscles consist of several muscles, but the most important ones – the ones you can see – are the rectus abdominis (straight abdominal muscle) and the obliques (oblique abdominal muscles). The other underlying muscles are trained along with your abdominal muscle training.
Rectus Abdominis
The rectus abdominis, the muscle that forms the six-pack, is just one muscle! The ‘buns’ you see when contracting the abdominal muscles are caused by connective tissue running over the rectus abdominis. When the muscle contracts, the muscle tissue is pushed through the connective tissue, creating the characteristic distribution.
The number of strands of connective tissue running over your rectus abdominis determines whether you have a four-pack, a six-pack, or an eight-pack. Another dream shattered!
Like any muscle, the rectus abdominis contracts along the shortest path. The two ends need to be brought together to accomplish this. To train your rectus abdominis, you basically just need to bring your chest closer to your lower abdomen!
With various abdominal exercises, you can emphasize different parts of the muscle, but it’s still one muscle. Most exercises emphasize the top of the rectus abdominis because they require you to lift your shoulders up (e.g., crunches). If you do the opposite, bringing your hips toward your chest (as in leg raises), then the bottom of the rectus abdominis is targeted more.
Crunches are the best for targeting your abs (okay, your rectus abdominis). They lift your shoulders off the ground and bring your chest towards your hips. The movement is short, but that’s all you need to train your rectus abdominis. Contracted is contracted! Going further, such as with sit-ups, engages your hip flexors without further engaging your abs.
The crunch is simple:
- lie down and place your lower legs on a bench or keep them elevated so your knees are pointing straight up
- place your hands on your chest or lightly behind your neck (don’t pull!)
- contract your abs by lifting your shoulders up and moving your chest towards your legs
- contract well and return until your shoulders almost touch the ground
You can do crunches in many ways: straight, at an angle to target your intercostal muscles more, with a twist (bringing your elbows alternately to your knees), the possibilities are endless.
You best target the lower part of your abs with exercises like hanging leg raises and reverse crunches.
With hanging leg raises, you lift your legs or knees and tilt your pelvis to engage your abs. With reverse crunches, you lift your buttocks off the ground to engage your abs.
Obliques
The obliques, or the oblique abdominal muscles, frame the rectus abdominis like a picture frame. If you want a slim waist, the obliques must be trained and clearly visible, but they shouldn’t become too large! If you do, your waist will widen, and you’ll lose your slim waist. This will cost you points in a competition, if you compete. So, forget about heavy side bends to train your obliques!
Your obliques are trained along with your rectus abdominis, but they also endure a lot during squats and deadlifts.
You can directly train your obliques by doing cable side crunches:
- attach a handle to a high cable tower
- grab the handle with one hand and bring your hand next to your head
- crunch the side of your waist (see the photo)
Lower Back
The muscles in your lower back are called the erector spinae. Although this muscle runs all the way up to your neck, it’s most visible in the lower back. By training the erector spinae, you’ll see two tight cables in your lower back.
By the way, this also doubly applies that you must have a low body fat percentage! Unfortunately, most men tend to accumulate a lot of fat on their lower back, and to see your erector spinae, you’ll need to have very low body fat.
You usually train your lower back during your back training, but I still want to briefly mention the ideal exercises for this:
Deadlifts
A deadlift is simply lifting a weight off the ground until you’re standing straight. Ensure your form is correct, and you lift mainly with your legs.
Hyperextensions
This is an exercise that is often performed incorrectly and one that I wouldn’t quickly recommend for most people. However, the benefits of the correctly executed movement are why I’m discussing it.
Most gyms have a hyperextension bench. The principle is simple: you have an inclined bench where your feet are secured, and you press a pad against your lower abdomen. Lower your upper body from your waist downward while keeping your upper body tight. Return until your body is completely straight again and do the next repetition.
The big mistake with hyperextensions is that most people let themselves fall down and overextend when they come up. Don’t go up any further than until your body is completely straight. If you do, you risk serious back injuries.
